path: root/man/lvmthin.7.in

.TH "LVMTHIN" "7" "LVM TOOLS #VERSION#" "Red Hat, Inc" "\""

.SH NAME
lvmthin \(em LVM thin provisioning

.SH DESCRIPTION

Blocks in a standard logical volume are allocated when the LV is created,
but blocks in a thin provisioned logical volume are allocated as they are
written.  Because of this, a thin provisioned LV is given a virtual size,
and can then be much larger than physically available storage.  The amount
of physical storage provided for thin provisioned LVs can be increased
later as the need arises.

Blocks in a standard LV are allocated (during creation) from the VG, but
blocks in a thin LV are allocated (during use) from a special "thin pool
LV".  The thin pool LV contains blocks of physical storage, and blocks in
thin LVs just reference blocks in the thin pool LV.

A thin pool LV must be created before thin LVs can be created within it.
A thin pool LV is created by combining two standard LVs: a large data LV
that will hold blocks for thin LVs, and a metadata LV that will hold
metadata.  The metadata tracks which data blocks belong to each thin LV.

Snapshots of thin LVs are efficient because the data blocks common to a
thin LV and any of its snapshots are shared.  Snapshots may be taken of
thin LVs or of other thin snapshots.  Blocks common to recursive snapshots
are also shared in the thin pool.  There is no limit to or degradation
from sequences of snapshots.

As thin LVs or snapshot LVs are written to, they consume data blocks in
the thin pool.  As free data blocks in the pool decrease, more free blocks
may need to be supplied.  This is done by extending the thin pool data LV
with additional physical space from the VG.  Removing thin LVs or
snapshots from the thin pool can also free blocks in the thin pool.
However, removing LVs is not always an effective way of freeing space in a
thin pool because the amount is limited to the number of blocks not shared
with other LVs in the pool.

Incremental block allocation from thin pools can cause thin LVs to become
fragmented.  Standard LVs generally avoid this problem by allocating all
the blocks at once during creation.


.SH Thin Terms

.TP
ThinDataLV
.br
thin data LV
.br
large LV created in a VG
.br
used by thin pool to store ThinLV blocks

.TP
ThinMetaLV
.br
thin metadata LV
.br
small LV created in a VG
.br
used by thin pool to track data block usage

.TP
ThinPoolLV
.br
thin pool LV
.br
combination of ThinDataLV and ThinMetaLV
.br
contains ThinLVs and SnapLVs

.TP
ThinLV
.br
thin LV
.br
created from ThinPoolLV
.br
appears blank after creation

.TP
SnapLV
.br
snapshot LV
.br
created from ThinPoolLV
.br
appears as a snapshot of another LV after creation



.SH Thin Usage

The primary method for using lvm thin provisioning:

.nf
1. create ThinDataLV

   Create an LV that will hold thin pool data.

   Command
   lvcreate \-n ThinDataLV \-L LargeSize VG

   Example
   # lvcreate \-n pool0 \-L 10G vg

2. create ThinMetaLV

   Create an LV that will hold thin pool metadata.

   Command
   lvcreate \-n ThinMetaLV \-L SmallSize VG

   Example
   # lvcreate \-n pool0meta \-L 1G vg

   # lvs
   pool0     vg          -wi-a-----  10.00g
   pool0meta vg          -wi-a-----   1.00g

3. create ThinPoolLV

   Combine the data and metadata LVs into a thin pool LV.
   ThinDataLV is renamed to hidden ThinPoolLV_tdata.
   ThinMetaLV is renamed to hidden ThinPoolLV_tmeta.
   The new ThinPoolLV takes the previous name of ThinDataLV.

   Command
   lvconvert \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV

   Example
   # lvconvert \-\-thinpool vg/pool0 \-\-poolmetadata vg/pool0meta

   # lvs vg/pool0
   LV    VG  Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data%
   pool0 vg  twi-a-tz-- 10.00g               0.00

   # lvs -a
   pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--  10.00g
   [pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----  10.00g
   [pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----   1.00g

4. create ThinLV

   Create a new thin LV from the thin pool LV.
   The thin LV is created with a virtual size.
   Multiple new thin LVs may be created in the thin pool.
   Thin LV names must be unique in the VG.
   The thinpool argument specifies which thin pool will
   contain the ThinLV.

   Command
   lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n ThinLV \-V VirtualSize \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

   Example
   Create a thin LV in a thin pool:
   # lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n thin1 \-V 1T \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

   Create another thin LV in the same thin pool:
   # lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n thin2 \-V 1T \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

   # lvs vg/thin1 vg/thin2
   LV    VG  Attr       LSize Pool  Origin Data%
   thin1 vg  Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00t pool0          0.00
   thin2 vg  Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00t pool0          0.00

5. create SnapLV

   Create snapshots of an existing ThinLV or SnapLV.

   Command
   lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n SnapLV \-s ThinLV \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV
   lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n SnapLV \-s PrevSnapLV \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

   Example
   Create first snapshot of an existing ThinLV:
   # lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n thin1s1 \-s thin1 \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

   Create second snapshot of the same ThinLV:
   # lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n thin1s2 \-s thin1 \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

   Create a snapshot of the first snapshot:
   # lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n thin1s1s1 \-s thin1s1 \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

   # lvs vg/thin1s1 vg/thin1s2 vg/thin1s1s1
   LV        VG  Attr       LSize Pool  Origin
   thin1s1   vg  Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
   thin1s2   vg  Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
   thin1s1s1 vg  Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1s1

6. activate SnapLV

   Thin snapshots are created with the persistent "activation skip"
   flag, indicated by the "k" attribute.  Use \-K with lvchange
   or vgchange to activate thin snapshots with the "k" attribute.

   Command
   lvchange \-ay \-K VG/SnapLV

   Example
   # lvchange \-ay \-K vg/thin1s1

   # lvs vg/thin1s1
   thin1s1 vg   Vwi-a-tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
.fi


.SH Thin Topics

Specify devices for data and metadata LVs
.br
Tolerate device failures using raid
.br
Spare metadata LV
.br
Metadata check and repair
.br
Automatic pool metadata LV
.br
Activation of thin snapshots
.br
Removing thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots
.br
Manually manage free data space of thin pool LV
.br
Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV
.br
Using fstrim to increase free space in a thin pool LV
.br
Automatically extend thin pool LV
.br
Data space exhaustion
.br
Metadata space exhaustion
.br
Zeroing
.br
Discard
.br
Chunk size
.br
Size of pool metadata LV
.br
Create a thin snapshot of an external, read only LV
.br
Convert a standard LV to a thin LV with an external origin
.br
Single step thin pool LV creation
.br
Single step thin pool LV and thin LV creation
.br
Merge thin snapshots
.br
XFS on snapshots
.br

\&

.SS Specify devices for data and metadata LVs

\&

The data and metadata LVs in a thin pool are best created on
separate physical devices.  To do that, specify the device name(s)
at the end of the lvcreate line.  It can be especially helpful
to use fast devices for the metadata LV.

.nf
lvcreate \-n ThinDataLV \-L LargeSize VG LargePV
lvcreate \-n ThinMetaLV \-L SmallSize VG SmallPV
lvconvert \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV

Example
# lvcreate \-n pool0 \-L 10G vg /dev/sdA
# lvcreate \-n pool0meta \-L 1G vg /dev/sdB
# lvconvert \-\-thinpool vg/pool0 \-\-poolmetadata vg/pool0meta
.fi

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_pool_metadata_require_separate_pvs
.br
controls the default PV usage for thin pool creation.


.SS Tolerate device failures using raid

\&

To tolerate device failures, use raid for the pool data LV and
pool metadata LV.  This is especially recommended for pool metadata LVs.

.nf
lvcreate \-\-type raid1 \-m 1 \-n ThinMetaLV \-L SmallSize VG PVA PVB
lvcreate \-\-type raid1 \-m 1 \-n ThinDataLV \-L LargeSize VG PVC PVD
lvconvert \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV

Example
# lvcreate \-\-type raid1 \-m 1 \-n pool0 \-L 10G vg /dev/sdA /dev/sdB
# lvcreate \-\-type raid1 \-m 1 \-n pool0meta \-L 1G vg /dev/sdC /dev/sdD
# lvconvert \-\-thinpool vg/pool0 \-\-poolmetadata vg/pool0meta
.fi


.SS Spare metadata LV

\&

The first time a thin pool LV is created, lvm will create a spare
metadata LV in the VG.  This behavior can be controlled with the
option \-\-poolmetadataspare y|n.  (Future thin pool creations will
also attempt to create the pmspare LV if none exists.)

To create the pmspare ("pool metadata spare") LV, lvm first creates
an LV with a default name, e.g. lvol0, and then converts this LV to
a hidden LV with the _pmspare suffix, e.g. lvol0_pmspare.

One pmspare LV is kept in a VG to be used for any thin pool.

The pmspare LV cannot be created explicitly, but may be removed
explicitly.

.nf
Example
# lvcreate \-n pool0 \-L 10G vg
# lvcreate \-n pool0meta \-L 10G vg
# lvconvert \-\-thinpool vg/pool0 \-\-poolmetadata vg/pool0meta

# lvs \-a
[lvol0_pmspare] vg          ewi-------  10.00g
pool0           vg          twi---tz--  10.00g
[pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-------  10.00g
[pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-------   1.00g
.fi

The "Metadata check and repair" section describes the use of
the pmspare LV.


.SS Metadata check and repair

\&

If thin pool metadata is damaged, it may be repairable.
Checking and repairing thin pool metadata is analagous to
running fsck on a file system.

When a thin pool LV is activated, lvm runs the thin_check command
to check the correctness of the metadata on the pool metadata LV.

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_check_executable
.br
can be set to an empty string ("") to disable the thin_check step.
This is not recommended.

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_check_options
.br
controls the command options used for the thin_check command.

If the thin_check command finds a problem with the metadata,
the thin pool LV is not activated, and the thin pool metadata should
be repaired.

Command to repair a thin pool:
.nf
lvconvert \-\-repair VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

Repair performs the following steps:

1. Creates a new, repaired copy of the metadata.
.br
lvconvert runs the thin_repair command to read damaged metadata
from the existing pool metadata LV, and writes a new repaired
copy to the VG's pmspare LV.

2. Replaces the thin pool metadata LV.
.br
If step 1 is successful, the thin pool metadata LV is replaced
with the pmspare LV containing the corrected metadata.
The previous thin pool metadata LV, containing the damaged metadata,
becomes visible with the new name ThinPoolLV_tmetaN (where N is 0,1,...).

If the repair works, the thin pool LV and its thin LVs can be activated,
and the LV containing the damaged thin pool metadata can be removed.
It may be useful to move the new metadata LV (previously pmspare) to a
better PV.

If the repair does not work, the thin pool LV and its thin LVs are lost.

If metadata is manually restored with thin_repair directly,
the pool metadata LV can be manually swapped with another LV
containing new metadata:

.nf
lvconvert \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/NewThinMetaLV
.fi


.SS Automatic pool metadata LV

\&

A thin data LV can be converted to a thin pool LV without
specifying a thin pool metadata LV.  LVM will automatically
create a metadata LV from the same VG.

.nf
lvcreate \-n ThinDataLV \-L LargeSize VG
lvconvert \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV

Example
# lvcreate \-n pool0 \-L 10G vg
# lvconvert \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

# lvs \-a
pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--  10.00g
[pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----  10.00g
[pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----  16.00m
.fi


.SS Activation of thin snapshots

\&

When a thin snapshot LV is created, it is by default given the
"activation skip" flag.  This flag is indicated by the "k" attribute
displayed by lvs:

.nf
# lvs vg/thin1s1
LV         VG  Attr       LSize Pool  Origin
thin1s1    vg  Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
.fi

This flag causes the snapshot LV to be skipped, i.e. not activated,
by normal activation commands.  The skipping behavior does not
apply to deactivation commands.

A snapshot LV with the "k" attribute can be activated using
the \-K (or \-\-ignoreactivationskip) option in addition to the
standard \-ay (or \-\-activate y) option.

Command to activate a thin snapshot LV:
.nf
lvchange \-ay \-K VG/SnapLV
.fi

The persistent "activation skip" flag can be turned off during
lvcreate, or later with lvchange using the \-kn
(or \-\-setactivationskip n) option.
It can be turned on again with \-ky (or \-\-setactivationskip y).

When the "activation skip" flag is removed, normal activation
commands will activate the LV, and the \-K activation option is
not needed.

Command to create snapshot LV without the activation skip flag:
.nf
lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n SnapLV \-kn \-s ThinLV \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

Command to remove the activation skip flag from a snapshot LV:
.nf
lvchange \-kn VG/SnapLV
.fi

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B auto_set_activation_skip
.br
controls the default activation skip setting used by lvcreate.


.SS Removing thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots

\&

Removing a thin LV and its related snapshots returns the blocks it
used to the thin pool LV.  These blocks will be reused for other
thin LVs and snapshots.

Removing a thin pool LV removes both the data LV and metadata LV
and returns the space to the VG.

lvremove of thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots cannot be
reversed with vgcfgrestore.

vgcfgbackup does not back up thin pool metadata.


.SS Manually manage free data space of thin pool LV

\&

The available free space in a thin pool LV can be displayed
with the lvs command.  Free space can be added by extending
the thin pool LV.

.nf
Command to extend thin pool data space:
lvextend \-L Size VG/ThinPoolLV

Example

1. A thin pool LV is using 26.96% of its data blocks.
# lvs
LV    VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
pool0 vg           twi-a-tz--  10.00g               26.96

2. Double the amount of physical space in the thin pool LV.
# lvextend \-L+10G vg/pool0

3. The percentage of used data blocks is half the previous value.
# lvs
LV    VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
pool0 vg           twi-a-tz--  20.00g               13.48
.fi

Other methods of increasing free data space in a thin pool LV
include removing a thin LV and its related snapsots, or running
fstrim on the file system using a thin LV.


.SS Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV

\&

The available metadata space in a thin pool LV can be displayed
with the lvs \-o+metadata_percent command.

Command to extend thin pool metadata space:
.nf
lvextend \-L Size VG/ThinPoolLV_tmeta
.fi

Example

1. A thin pool LV is using 12.40% of its metadata blocks.
.nf
# lvs \-oname,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg/pool0
LV    LSize   Data%  Meta%
pool0  20.00g  13.48  12.40
.fi

2. Display a thin pool LV with its component thin data LV and thin metadata LV.
.nf
# lvs \-a \-oname,attr,size vg
LV              Attr       LSize
pool0           twi-a-tz--  20.00g
[pool0_tdata]   Twi-ao----  20.00g
[pool0_tmeta]   ewi-ao----  12.00m
.fi

3. Double the amount of physical space in the thin metadata LV.
.nf
# lvextend \-L+12M vg/pool0_tmeta
.fi

4. The percentage of used metadata blocks is half the previous value.
.nf
# lvs \-a \-oname,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg
LV              LSize   Data%  Meta%
pool0            20.00g  13.48   6.20
[pool0_tdata]    20.00g
[pool0_tmeta]    24.00m
.fi


.SS Using fstrim to increase free space in a thin pool LV

\&

Removing files in a file system on top of a thin LV does not
generally add free space back to the thin pool.  Manually running
the fstrim command can return space back to the thin pool that had
been used by removed files.  fstrim uses discards and will not work
if the thin pool LV has discards mode set to ignore.

Example

A thin pool has 10G of physical data space, and a thin LV has a virtual
size of 100G.  Writing a 1G file to the file system reduces the
free space in the thin pool by 10% and increases the virtual usage
of the file system by 1%.  Removing the 1G file restores the virtual
1% to the file system, but does not restore the physical 10% to the
thin pool.  The fstrim command restores the physical space to the thin pool.

.nf
# lvs \-a \-oname,attr,size,pool_lv,origin,data_percent,metadata_percent vg
LV              Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%  Meta%
pool0           twi-a-tz--  10.00g               47.01  21.03
thin1           Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0          2.70

# df \-h /mnt/X
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1   99G  1.1G   93G   2% /mnt/X

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/X/1Gfile bs=4096 count=262144; sync

# lvs
pool0           vg   twi-a-tz--  10.00g               57.01  25.26
thin1           vg   Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0          3.70

# df \-h /mnt/X
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1   99G  2.1G   92G   3% /mnt/X

# rm /mnt/X/1Gfile

# lvs
pool0           vg   twi-a-tz--  10.00g               57.01  25.26
thin1           vg   Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0          3.70

# df \-h /mnt/X
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1   99G  1.1G   93G   2% /mnt/X

# fstrim \-v /mnt/X

# lvs
pool0           vg   twi-a-tz--  10.00g               47.01  21.03
thin1           vg   Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0          2.70
.fi

The "Discard" section covers an option for automatically freeing data
space in a thin pool.


.SS Automatically extend thin pool LV

\&

An lvm daemon (dmeventd) will by default monitor the data usage of
thin pool LVs and extend them when the usage reaches a certain level.
The necessary free space must exist in the VG to extend the thin pool
LVs.

Command to enable or disable the monitoring and automatic extension
of an existing thin pool LV:

.nf
lvchange \-\-monitor {y|n} VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_pool_autoextend_threshold thin_pool_autoextend_percent
.br
control the default autoextend behavior.

thin_pool_autoextend_threshold
is a percentage value that defines when
the thin pool LV should be extended.  Setting this to 100 disables
automatic extention.  The minimum value is 50.

thin_pool_autoextend_percent
defines how much extra data space should
be added to the thin pool, in percent of its current size.

Warnings are emitted through syslog when the use of a pool reaches 80%,
85%, 90% and 95%.

Example

If thin_pool_autoextend_threshold is 70 and thin_pool_autoextend_percent is 20,
whenever a pool exceeds 70% usage, it will be extended by another 20%.
For a 1G pool, using 700M will trigger a resize to 1.2G. When the usage exceeds
840M, the pool will be extended to 1.44G, and so on.


.SS Data space exhaustion

\&

If thin pool data space is exhausted, writes to thin LVs will be queued
until the the data space is extended.  Reading is still possible.

When data space is exhausted, the lvs command displays 100 under Data% for
the thin pool LV:

.nf
# lvs vg/pool0
LV     VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
pool0  vg           twi-a-tz-- 512.00m              100.00
.fi

A thin pool can run out of data blocks for any of the following reasons:

1. Automatic extension of the thin pool is disabled, and the thin pool is
not manually extended.  (Disabling automatic extension is not
recommended.)

2. The dmeventd daemon is not running and the thin pool is not manually
extended.  (Disabling dmeventd is not recommended.)

3. Automatic extension of the thin pool is too slow given the rate of
writes to thin LVs in the pool.  (This can be addressed by tuning the
thin_pool_autoextend_threshold and thin_pool_autoextend_percent.)

4. The VG does not have enough free blocks to extend the thin pool.

The response to data space exhaustion is to extend the thin pool.  This is
described in the section "Manually manage free data space of thin pool
LV".


.SS Metadata space exhaustion

\&

If thin pool metadata space is exhausted (or a thin pool metadata
operation fails), errors will be returned for IO operations on thin LVs.

When metadata space is exhausted, the lvs command displays 100 under Meta%
for the thin pool LV:

.nf
# lvs \-o lv_name,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg/pool0
LV    LSize Data%  Meta%
pool0              100.00
.fi

The same reasons for thin pool data space exhaustion apply to thin pool
metadata space.

Metadata space exhaustion can lead to inconsistent thin pool metadata and
inconsistent file systems, so the response requires offline checking and
repair.

1. Deactivate the thin pool LV, or reboot the system if this is not possible.

2. Repair thin pool with lvconvert \-\-repair.
.br
   See "Metadata check and repair".

3. Extend pool metadata space with lvextend VG/ThinPoolLV_tmeta.
.br
   See "Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV".

4. Check and repair file system with fsck.


.SS Zeroing

\&

When a thin pool provisions a new data block for a thin LV, the
new block is first overwritten with zeros.  The zeroing mode is
indicated by the "z" attribute displayed by lvs.  The option \-Z
(or \-\-zero) can be added to commands to specify the zeroing mode.

Command to set the zeroing mode when creating a thin pool LV:
.nf
lvconvert \-Z{y|n} \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV
.fi

Command to change the zeroing mode of an existing thin pool LV:
.nf
lvchange \-Z{y|n} VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

If zeroing mode is changed from "n" to "y", previously provisioned
blocks are not zeroed.

Provisioning of large zeroed chunks impacts performance.

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_pool_zero
.br
controls the default zeroing mode used when creating a thin pool.


.SS Discard

\&

The discard behavior of a thin pool LV determines how discard requests are
handled.  Enabling discard under a file system may adversely affect the
file system performance (see the section on fstrim for an alternative.)
Possible discard behaviors:

ignore: Ignore any discards that are received.

nopassdown: Process any discards in the thin pool itself and allow
the no longer needed extends to be overwritten by new data.

passdown: Process discards in the thin pool (as with nopassdown), and
pass the discards down the the underlying device.  This is the default
mode.

Command to display the current discard mode of a thin pool LV:
.nf
lvs \-o+discards VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

Command to set the discard mode when creating a thin pool LV:
.nf
lvconvert \-\-discards {ignore|nopassdown|passdown}
    \-\-thinpool VG/ThinDataLV \-\-poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV
.fi

Command to change the discard mode of an existing thin pool LV:
.nf
lvchange \-\-discards {ignore|nopassdown|passdown} VG/ThinPoolLV
.fi

.nf
Example
# lvs \-o name,discards vg/pool0
pool0 passdown

# lvchange \-\-discards ignore vg/pool0
.fi

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_pool_discards
.br
controls the default discards mode used when creating a thin pool.


.SS Chunk size

\&

The size of data blocks managed by a thin pool can be specified with
the \-\-chunksize option when the thin pool LV is created.  The default
unit is kilobytes and the default value is 64KiB.  The value must be a
power of two between 4KiB and 1GiB.

When a thin pool is used primarily for the thin provisioning feature,
a larger value is optimal.  To optimize for a lot of snapshotting,
a smaller value reduces copying time and consumes less space.

Command to display the thin pool LV chunk size:
.nf
lvs \-o+chunksize VG/ThinPoolLV

Example
# lvs \-o name,chunksize
pool0 64.00k
.fi

.BR lvm.conf (5)
.B thin_pool_chunk_size
.br
controls the default chunk size used when creating a thin pool.


.SS Size of pool metadata LV

\&

The amount of thin metadata depends on how many blocks are shared
between thin LVs (i.e. through snapshots).  A thin pool with many
snapshots may need a larger metadata LV.

The range of supported metadata LV sizes is 2MiB to 16GiB.
.br
The default size is estimated with the formula:
.br
ThinPoolLVSize / ThinPoolLVChunkSize * 64b.

When creating a thin metadata LV explicitly, the size is specified
in the lvcreate command.  When a command automatically creates a
thin metadata LV, the \-\-poolmetadatasize option can be used specify
a non-default size.  The default unit is megabytes.


.SS Create a thin snapshot of an external, read only LV

\&

Thin snapshots are typically taken of other thin LVs or other
thin snapshot LVs within the same thin pool.  It is also possible
to take thin snapshots of external, read only LVs.  Writes to the
snapshot are stored in the thin pool, and the external LV is used
to read unwritten parts of the thin snapshot.

.nf
lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n SnapLV \-s VG/ExternalOriginLV
      \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

Example
# lvchange \-an vg/lve
# lvchange \-\-permission r vg/lve
# lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n snaplve \-s vg/lve \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

# lvs vg/lve vg/snaplve
LV      VG  Attr       LSize  Pool  Origin Data%
lve     vg  ori------- 10.00g
snaplve vg  Vwi-a-tz-- 10.00g pool0 lve      0.00
.fi


.SS Convert a standard LV to a thin LV with an external origin

\&

A new thin LV can be created and given the name of an existing
standard LV.  At the same time, the existing LV is converted to a
read only external LV with a new name.  Unwritten portions of the
thin LV are read from the external LV.
The new name given to the existing LV can be specified with
\-\-originname, otherwise the existing LV will be given a default
name, e.g. lvol#.

Convert ExampleLV into a read only external LV with the new name
NewExternalOriginLV, and create a new thin LV that is given the previous
name of ExampleLV.

.nf
lvconvert \-\-type thin \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV
      \-\-originname NewExternalOriginLV \-\-thin VG/ExampleLV

Example
# lvcreate \-n lv_example \-L 10G vg

# lvs
lv_example      vg          -wi-a-----  10.00g

# lvconvert \-\-type thin \-\-thinpool vg/pool0
          \-\-originname lv_external \-\-thin vg/lv_example

# lvs
LV              VG          Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
lv_example      vg          Vwi-a-tz--  10.00g pool0 lv_external
lv_external     vg          ori-------  10.00g
.fi


.SS Single step thin pool LV creation

\&

A thin pool LV can be created with a single lvcreate command,
rather than using lvconvert on existing LVs.
This one command creates a thin data LV, a thin metadata LV,
and combines the two into a thin pool LV.

.nf
lvcreate \-L LargeSize \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

Example
# lvcreate \-L8M \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

# lvs vg/pool0
LV    VG  Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%
pool0 vg  twi-a-tz-- 8.00m               0.00

# lvs \-a
pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--   8.00m
[pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----   8.00m
[pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----   8.00m
.fi


.SS Single step thin pool LV and thin LV creation

\&

A thin pool LV and a thin LV can be created with a single
lvcreate command.  This one command creates a thin data LV,
a thin metadata LV, combines the two into a thin pool LV,
and creates a thin LV in the new pool.
.br
\-L LargeSize specifies the physical size of the thin pool LV.
.br
\-V VirtualSize specifies the virtual size of the thin LV.

.nf
lvcreate \-L LargeSize \-V VirtualSize \-n ThinLV \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

Equivalent to:
lvcreate \-L LargeSize \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV
lvcreate \-\-type thin \-n ThinLV \-V VirtualSize \-\-thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

Example
# lvcreate \-L8M \-V2G \-n thin1 \-\-thinpool vg/pool0

# lvs \-a
pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--   8.00m
[pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----   8.00m
[pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----   8.00m
thin1           vg          Vwi-a-tz--   2.00g pool0
.fi


.SS Merge thin snapshots

\&

A thin snapshot can be merged into its origin thin LV using the lvconvert
\-\-merge command.  The result of a snapshot merge is that the origin thin
LV takes the content of the snapshot LV, and the snapshot LV is removed.
Any content that was unique to the origin thin LV is lost after the merge.

Because a merge changes the content of an LV, it cannot be done while the
LVs are open, e.g. mounted.  If a merge is initiated while the LVs are open,
the effect of the merge is delayed until the origin thin LV is next
activated.

.nf
lvconvert \-\-merge VG/SnapLV

Example
# lvs vg
LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
thin1   vg Vwi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0
thin1s1 vg Vwi-a-tz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

# lvconvert \-\-merge vg/thin1s1

# lvs vg
LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
thin1   vg Vwi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0
.fi

.nf
Example

Delayed merging of open LVs.

# lvs vg
LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
thin1   vg Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0
thin1s1 vg Vwi-aotz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

# df
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1            100G   33M  100G   1% /mnt/X
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1s1          100G   33M  100G   1% /mnt/Xs

# ls /mnt/X
file1 file2 file3
# ls /mnt/Xs
file3 file4 file5

# lvconvert \-\-merge vg/thin1s1
Logical volume vg/thin1s1 contains a filesystem in use.
Delaying merge since snapshot is open.
Merging of thin snapshot thin1s1 will occur on next activation.

# umount /mnt/X
# umount /mnt/Xs

# lvs \-a vg
LV              VG   Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
pool0           vg   twi-a-tz--  10.00g
[pool0_tdata]   vg   Twi-ao----  10.00g
[pool0_tmeta]   vg   ewi-ao----   1.00g
thin1           vg   Owi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0
[thin1s1]       vg   Swi-a-tz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

# lvchange \-an vg/thin1
# lvchange \-ay vg/thin1

# mount /dev/vg/thin1 /mnt/X

# ls /mnt/X
file3 file4 file5
.fi


.SS XFS on snapshots

\&

Mounting an XFS file system on a new snapshot LV requires attention to the
file system's log state and uuid.  On the snapshot LV, the xfs log will
contain a dummy transaction, and the xfs uuid will match the uuid from the
file system on the origin LV.

If the snapshot LV is writable, mounting will recover the log to clear the
dummy transaction, but will require skipping the uuid check:

mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt \-o nouuid

Or, the uuid can be changed on disk before mounting:

xfs_admin \-U generate /dev/VG/SnapLV
.br
mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt

If the snapshot LV is readonly, the log recovery and uuid check need to be
skipped while mounting readonly:

mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt \-o ro,nouuid,norecovery


.SH SEE ALSO
.BR lvm (8),
.BR lvm.conf (5),
.BR lvcreate (8),
.BR lvconvert (8),
.BR lvchange (8),
.BR lvextend (8),
.BR lvremove (8),
.BR lvs (8),
.BR thin_dump (8),
.BR thin_repair (8)
.BR thin_restore (8)